ORLANDO, Fla. The Big 12 came to fear Vince Young. So did Southern Cal. Now it's the NFL's turn.
Young quarterbacked Texas to a national championship in 2005, beating Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl with his arm and legs, then decided to skip his senior season to enter the 2006 NFL draft.
Since that time Young has become the most scrutinized player on the draft board. He's been criticized for his low Wonderlic test score, his throwing motion and the infrequency he took direct center snaps in college.
More than 100 NFL types attended his workout in Austin last week to watch him run and throw.
"I have a sense that what this league does to a guy who plays that brilliantly is beat up on him pretty good," said Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick during a break at the NFL spring meetings. "A guy who's going to go as high [in the draft] as Vince Young will be critiqued and over-critiqued."
Why? Because the NFL doesn't quite know what to make of Young.
"Unique is a word you don't want to throw out there too often," Billick said. "But this guy is truly unique and that uniqueness is what has most people apprehensive.
"We all want to make comparisons to give ourselves a comfort zone, like the Jake Plummer-Joe Montana analogy. A Matt Leinart is very direct. We've seen him before in this league. He translates very easily, so you have a much stronger conviction about how he'll do.
"But there's trepidation with a guy as unique as Young. It's a little frightening."
Billick is an expert on quarterbacks and what it takes to play the position in the NFL. He called the plays as the offensive coordinator at Minnesota in 1998 when the Vikings set an NFL scoring record and quarterback Randall Cunningham went to the Pro Bowl.
Billick was the head coach of the Ravens in 2000 when Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl as a caretaker quarterback. Billick also has coached Brad Johnson, Elvis Grbac and Kyle Boller. He's coached mobile quarterbacks and pocket passers, big arms and the average arms.
In short, Billick has coached all types of quarterbacks but he's never seen one quite like Young.
"If you try to pigeon hole him as a Randall Cunningham or a Michael Vick I don't know if you're going to be able to connect the dots in a way you'd like," Billick said. "As Vick has done, Young could create his own category because of the size, the speed and the athleticism."
Dennis Green was the head coach of that Minnesota team that set the NFL scoring record. He also coached Daunte Culpepper at Minnesota, and now coaches Kurt Warner at Arizona.
So Green also knows a little something about quarterbacks and he knows there's more to the position than just taking the center snaps.
"The game is about a guy's talent and intangibles," Green said. "I'd say Vince Young probably has the most intangibles we've seen in a long, long time. You're talking about a guy who's changed the game. He played against USC and made them look like they had average athletes on the field. It's because he was such a superior athlete.
"We try to make this game more complicated than it is. Does he throw completions? Can he lead his team? Does he have the instincts for the position? I think he'll be a hell of a pro."
Young passed for 267 yards and rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-38 victory over Southern Cal in the national title game. For the season, Young completed 65.2 percent of his passes for 3,036 yards and 26 touchdowns and rushed for 1,050 yards and 12 more scores, finishing as the Heisman Trophy runner-up.
Jacksonville Jaguars general manager James Harris says forget questions about Young's intelligence, delivery and ability to function in a conventional offense.
"The only question you have to ask is do you want to play against him?" Harris said.
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